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news
CSU budget lacking
By Greg Smith
On-line Forty-Niner
California State
University Chancellor Charles B. Reed announced last week
that due to the state's economic downturn the CSU system is
facing a budget shortfall.
In a telephone
conference with the system's Board of Trustees Reed announced
that Gov. Gray Davis' projection of a $14 billion state budget
deficit would force CSU to make budget cuts.
Clara Potes-Fellow,
manager of media relations for the Chancellor's Office, said
that the CSU has been asked to work with the state Department
of Finance and will have to begin looking to cut costs. Chancellor
Reed is meeting with the presidents of all 23 CSU campuses
Nov. 13 and 14 to discuss budget issues, including what kind
of cuts will need to be made.
Nothing specific
has been asked of universities yet, Potes-Fellow said.
Potes-Fellow said
that some items that Reed and the presidents may discuss are
tuition raises, program cuts and a hiring freeze, although
she stressed that these are not the only options and that
they may not occur.
She also said that
full-time and part-time faculty positions will continue to
be filled.
The CSU was faced
with a similar situation 10 years ago when a state budget
shortfall forced the CSU to raise tuition by 50 percent. Fees
were later rolled back.
According to Armando
Contreras, executive assistant to CSULB President Robert Maxson,
it is too early to tell what the effects might be but he said
that a tuition raise might happen again.
Contreras also
added that Reed has not asked individual universities to prepare
budget reduction plans but said that CSULB is looking into
the problem.
"It's obvious
the situation may get worse," Contreras said. "[The
administration needs] to be thinking about cutting expenses
to cushion the budget."
The CSU Board of
Trustees recently approved a $3.7 billion budget for the 2002-2003
fiscal year. This budget is adequate to support current university
services as well as serving the 10,000 new students expected
to enroll next year.
According to Potes-Fellow
this budget will be seeing cuts. She said that Gov. Davis
asked other state agencies for up to 15 percent budget cuts
but he has not asked the CSU for anything specific.
Martin Fiebert,
president of the CSULB chapter of the California Faculty Association,
said that budget cuts might have an effect on the collective
bargaining for faculty member's new contracts as well as having
a profound effect on the working and learning conditions of
CSU campuses.
Fiebert added that
the CFA knows this is a difficult time for the state and the
nation and that the bargaining team is willing to make some
revisions in light of the states economic crisis. But he also
said that the chancellor has to be willing to accept their
offers and not try and take away anything already in their
contract.
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